Working My Way Back to You
by patricia51
Summary: Set moments before the end of the movie. Wichita panics when she realizes how much she cares for Columbus. Can she find him and Tallahassee and make things right? With Chapter 7 now complete.
1. Chapter 1

Working My Way Back to You, Chapter 1 by patricia51

(Set moments before the end of the movie. Wichita panics when she realizes how much she cares for Columbus. Can she find him and Tallahassee and make things right?)

(Columbus)

I think I knew it even before she did. One moment Wichita was smiling back at me from the car window. I saw the smile fade. I saw the confusion spread over her face followed immediately by panic, sheer wild panic. Then the vehicle was screeching out of the parking lot, heading for the entrance to Pacific Playland.

I could hear Little Rock screaming "What are you doing?" as she, fortunately, toppled back inside the car window she had been propped in rather than out on the ground. Maybe that would have been better. It might have stopped Wichita and let her get control of herself. Little Rock had started to toss something to Tallahassee. It wobbled through the air. Instead of reaching him the Twinkie fell on the ground in front of us. The tail lights faded and they were gone.

I made a mental note that she must really be moving to get out of sight that fast. I heaved a sigh and picked up my shotgun.

"What the hell just happened?" Tallahassee demanded not only of me but the world at large.

I wanted to yell, scream, and throw things, anything at all to do something to release my frustration. Then everything let out of me like a balloon that had been popped and I felt nothing but empty. I should have known this was going to happen. I should have known that in this fucked-up world of Zombieland that nothing as good as Wichita was ever going to be mine.

"I guess her trust issues got the better of her."

He cocked an eye at me. "You're taking this pretty calmly considering how hell bent you were to come here and rescue her."

I picked up my shotgun and shrugged. "I guess even I learn when someone's not that into me. Let's go."

He bent over and picked up the Twinkie that Little Rock had thrown him. He studied it, jammed it unopened in a pocket and looked around.

"Might as well."

(Little Rock)

The zombies were all dead for good, we were safely off that tower and back into the familiar environment of a car and I was just winding up to throw the Twinkie I had found to Tallahassee when the engine roared, the tires smoked and we were accelerating as though there was a mob of the infected right behind us.

Where the Twinkie went I have no idea as I let go of it just in time to grab the car window frame and drop back into the passenger seat. By the light of the park I could see my sister's face and the look there scared me.

"What are you doing?" I yelled at her. "Stop!" But I knew that she wasn't going to pay me any mind. In fact I was pretty sure she wasn't hearing me at all. Her face was frozen and she stared straight ahead without blinking. Her knuckles were so tight on the steering wheel that they were white. She drove as though she was barely seeing the road in front of us. I know she didn't see the pair of zombies that she flattened as we pulled back up onto the interstate.

She started talking. I thought that must be a good thing until I realized that she wasn't talking to me. She was talking to herself and she was repeating our major rule over and over in a sing-song voice as though it were some kind of chant.

"Trust no one, just you and me. Trust no one, just you and me."

She scraped other cars abandoned on the road even when there was room to go around them. She just kept going, going as though the devil was behind us. I knew the devil wasn't but I thought that a certain former University of Texas boy from Columbus, Ohio had a lot to do with things. I was more than a little confused though. I had seen them hug; I had seen them kiss. Maybe that was it. Krista finally began to slow down a little as daylight began and the frozen look began to ease her face just a little. At last she stopped her recitation and fell silent. When that happened I went ahead and asked.

"Was his kiss that bad?"

(Wichita)

"Was his kiss that bad?"

I blinked. What did she say? In fact, as my mind began to take in the rising sun and the unfamiliar scenery around us that thought changed to "What the hell is going on? I looked around and added both "Where the hell are we?" and then "Where are Columbus and Tallahassee?"

My head was pounding and my hands hurt. Why did my hands hurt? I was clenching the steering wheel so hard I though I might have left fingerprints in the plastic. I tried to relax them. Then I realized my entire body was stiff from tenseness, every muscle in it seemed knotted up.

What was so strange was that I couldn't seem to remember anything from... from where? "Think Krista," I told myself even as I finally managed to ease off the gas petal and pull over to the side of the interstate. The interstate? What the hell were we doing here? And why did I have to keep asking myself questions that I should already know the answers to?

I looked over at my little sister, who was looking back at me like I was a two-headed monster. She had been yelling at me earlier, I could recall that although I wasn't sure what it was she had been yelling or why. Why did my head hurt so badly? I desperately scanned the back seat as though I could find a certain someone under the seat cushions or something like that.

And then I remembered.

"Oh SHIT! Columbus!"

(To be continued)

(By the way, the title is taken from the song of the same name first released by The Four Seasons in 1966 and then again in 1979 by The Spinners in a medley with "Forgive Me Girl" with a Motown sound. You can find both at youtube.)  
> <p>


	2. Chapter 2

Working My Way Back to You, Chapter 2 by patricia51

(Wichita)

"Oh SHIT! Columbus!"

I collapsed back into the seat, all the pent up energy of the last few hours exhausted.

"What did I just do?" I moan.

"What you did is pretty clear," my sister reminded me.

"Okay, so I know WHAT I did. WHY did I just do it? One moment I was feeling warm and happy. Columbus showed he had a lot more guts than a guppy. He and Tallahassee saved us. I was so excited when you pointed out they had showed up."

The younger girl nodded. "You said we should start working on our apology."

"Absolutely," I agreed. "And I meant it. I was surprised that they came after us but awfully glad that they did. I know Tallahassee likes killing zombies and I understand why he does but Columbus," I hesitated and my heart tightened and it was a moment before I could go on, "Columbus came for us. All the way for us. In spite of what he had to face."

"For you," she corrected me. "He's in love with you. Oh he was glad to see me not being eaten too but that's more because he knew how much it would upset you."

In spite of everything I manage to smile at my sister and for the first time since I lost it at the park I feel a little better. "That's true. When did you get so smart?"

She made a dismissive gesture. "I've always been this smart, even if I don't know who Gandhi and Willie Nelson are." She looked thoughtful. "What did you mean by saying Columbus came for us in spite of what he had to face?"

I could feel the smile fading from my face. Once again, how could I have done what I did? After what he faced? I sighed.

"Columbus is the biggest bundle of walking; talking fears I have ever met in my life. I swear he's scared of everything. Of course as he pointed out that might well be why he has survived this long. He recognizes dangerous situations and he avoids them. But he didn't avoid the biggest one last night."

My sister was really looking puzzled by now. "You mean zombies?"

"No." I hesitated. He had told me this in confidence the night before but I needed to explain just how brave he had been and how little of a guppy he could be when the chips were down. "Columbus' greatest fear is of clowns."

"You're kidding!"

"No, seriously. And it's not all that uncommon. He told me there's even a word for it." I searched my memory. "Coulrophobia," I said triumphantly.

"So when he came for us..."

"Uh-huh. The last zombie he had to go through to get to us was a huge clown zombie. And he didn't have any shells left for his shotgun so he had to tackle it with that 'ring the bell' strongman hammer he grabbed up and used. I was surprised. I was happy. I was so darned proud of him. That's why I hugged and kissed him, not because he had just saved us, although I certainly was happy about THAT. I did it because he showed he's NOT a guppy; that he could face his greatest fear and overcome it."

That, of course, was the perfect opening for my sister to ask the sixty-four hundred dollar question.

"So why are we here and he and Tallahassee back there?"

(Little Rock)

I was very glad that Krista was finally back from wherever she had been for the last few hours. If she was freaked out I had been scared. Very scared.

The two of us have been on our own for a long time, well before the infection and the collapse of everything. We're a team sure but she's the senior partner and I've always depended on her to be in control and to look after me. That's something she's always done too.

I knew perfectly well that she hadn't believed in the idea of Pacific Playland being zombie free, that she was going along with me. And that was even before I heard her confiding in Columbus why she was doing it.

I think she told Columbus a lot of things. Things she had never shared with any one but me and some things she had never told me. So why had we gone roaring away from him?

We're pretty used to roaring away from places. Once I have the cash in hand from the "reward" for finding the lost "engagement ring" that our latest sucker is now gloating about we don't hang around. I mean not a good idea to still be in the same county when the guy discovers that the phone number and address that Krista gave him don't exist. She always parks a safe distance around at least one corner. We set that up ahead of time so I know exactly where she is and don't waste any time getting to her.

After all, we've left some guy gloating how he forked over a few hundred dollars for a ring he's going to get three thousand for returning. And I'm neither naive nor stupid. I know the sight of Krista on her hands and knees with her legs showing and her short skirt tight over her rear end which she always carefully aims at the sucker has his brain so addled he's not thinking at all. Heck even before I show up to "find" the ring, which is of course safely in my pocket, he's still so fixated on her he hasn't realized that she drove off without paying for the gas she pumped.

That's why the timing is so important. I have to get there while he's still imagining not only the money he's going to get but while he's also playing fantasies through his head about being with Krista. I know all about sex. I don't mean that the way it sounded. I mean I understand how Krista uses being sexy to make guys lower their guard and keep their minds bouncing back and forth between the thought of the reward and the thought of her. That has them practically drooling when I find the ring and willing to empty that cash drawer to get it.

When we first started this I asked Krista if what we were doing wasn't dishonest. She didn't give me an immediate answer but rather thought about it a bit first.

"Yes. And no. There's an old saying that you can't cheat an honest man. Think about it. What would really be the right thing for someone to do when a young girl finds an object that someone knows is worth a lot of money if it is returned to the owner and that someone has the address right in his pocket?"

"He should tell her that there's a reward and give her the address to send the ring to."

"Exactly. But these guys don't. They try to get the ring without offering anything. If pushed they'll shell out some money but that's because they're telling themselves that they'll get ten times that amount of money back. They're doing their best to cheat someone. So as far as I'm concerned they deserve it."

Suddenly it hits me. THAT'S why she panicked. That's what she fled from.

Columbus is the guy who'll give the girl who finds the ring the address to send it to so that she gets the three thousand dollars. And Krista doesn't know how to handle someone like that.

(To be continued)

(I know, pretty short chapters but I'm stopping where it seems right to me. Plus I'm trying to get it up as soon as I can. By the way, Coulrophobia IS a real word indicating an abnormal fear of clowns. It's not officially recognized though by the American Psychiatric Association. I was tickled though to find in the Wikipedia article on it that the very first example mentioned of its use on screen was... Columbus in Zombieland!)


	3. Chapter 3

Working My Way Back to You, Chapter 3 by patricia51

(Tallahassee)

I can't believe that I have to remind Columbus of his own rules. He walked right up to that bathroom, jerked open the door and strolled in like he was, well, me. Not afraid of anything. Well he certainly wasn't prepared for anything either. Then when the zombie charged him he fired one shot and stepped over the body without looking back. Now I do that but then I pretty much expect them to me fully dead after I shoot them. Whatever happened to his "double-tap" thingy?

Okay, I know perfectly well what happened. A certain dark-haired, dark-eyed gal happened when she took off on him. Again. Somehow I had to shake him out of it before he got himself killed. Or worse, got me killed although that wasn't very likely. But I had grown fond of the peppy little spit-fuck and it would be just my luck to be covering his skinny ass because he wasn't paying attention and have something sneak up on me.

I'm not one for thinking things over a lot but that sudden take-off of the girls has me purely puzzled. One moment Wichita was leaning in the driver's widow with her arms crossed and smiling and the next she was peeling out of the parking lot in a move that Dale Earnhardt himself would have been proud of. Something about that just ain't right. She and Columbus had finally got to first base. That might not sound like much to most guys but for Columbus that was damn well hitting a home run.

And Little Rock. I don't think she had any idea what was taking place. Then again I'm not sure even Wichita could have told us what was going through her mind. But I don't care what I told that little girl on the trip to Pacific Playland about not playing with her there. I miss her already and it's only been a couple of days. Hell, I don't just miss her I miss her something fierce. I don't care if she DIDN'T know who Bill Murray was I feel something towards her I ain't felt since I lost Buck. And that means her being gone was leaving a big old hole in my heart.

Once we got over the shock of the girls doing their disappearing act again we took stock. We had a fair number of weapons but not a lot of ammo. On the other hand we, and I'm giving the other three credit too, had cleared the local neighborhood zombies out. As a precaution I found the main switchboard and shut everything down, although hell by now every zombie in miles had already shown up and done been handled. Then we settled in for the night. Zombies are easier to deal with when you can see them proper. Besides, I think we both had hopes that once she calmed down that Wichita would be back by the morning time.

She wasn't. So we started walking. Now I've done plenty of walking in my life but I never really cottoned to it. Not when an alternative can be found. But that whole first day we couldn't find a car that worked. Well, not one that I was willing to be seen in even by the zombies.

Speaking of zombies we purely had a time with them. We had agreed to head back to La Mansion de Murray but we got sidetracked several times and by sundown we really weren't much closer to there than when we started. We had found an old hardware store and raided their ammunition supplies as well as picked up some camping type stuff. When we holed up in an abandoned auto shop without windows and with steel doors to lock from the inside we were pretty well set.

Several times during the day I'd see Columbus stop and strain as though he thought he could hear something. That something was, I was sure, the sound of our missing vehicle and missing gals. I understood. I was straining my ears too.

(Little Rock)

If I thought our mad dash away from Pacific Playland had been crazed, well, I hadn't seen anything yet. Krista seemed to think that the harder she stomped on the accelerator that the easier it would be to explain to Columbus why she had left him standing there right after he had saved our lives. How easy that was going to be I couldn't imagine because I knew that "You're the one who would give the girl the address" probably wouldn't make a whole lot of sense to him, even though he was familiar with our routine and had actually thought it was pretty funny, And that it WAS the guys' faults for trying to take advantage of a twelve year old girl.

I wanted to close my eyes but figured at least I could scream warnings occasionally to my sister as she roared right back to where we had left Columbus and Tallahassee. This time I think she saw every one of the zombies that we ran over. In fact she seemed to be blaming them one and all for the situation we were in now.

We went so fast that it was still daylight when we screeched back into the parking lot. And there we were, all by ourselves with only the bodies of a few more zombies than I recalled being there when we left.

(Wichita)

At least I was conscious on the drive back, regardless of what my sister thought. Yes, she spent a lot of time yelling "Truck on the right!" and "Look out for the bus!" and "You just ran over an entire zombie junior ballerina class! And yes, so trying to hop the railing in order to save time when I found the interchange I needed was blocked wasn't the smartest driving I've ever done but I really was focusing on my driving.

I had to focus on the driving. Because for the life of me I had no clue what I was going to say to Columbus when we got back. All that kept running through my head was "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Now that I really needed one I couldn't come up with an apology that sounded even half real to my own ears. But I was damn sure going to try.

That was why when we roared back into the parking lot the one thing I had not considered was what greeted my eyes.

There was no one there.

"What do we do now?" my sister asked.

I had no idea.

(To be continued) 


	4. Chapter 4

Working My Way Back to You, Chapter 4 by patricia51

(Little Rock)

It was just like when Krista had finally recovered from her panic attack out on the interstate. She just kept looking around with this puzzled look on her face, as though she was unable to accept the fact that Columbus just wasn't here. In fact I was starting to freak out about my sister's sudden habit of freaking out.

"Krista!" When she turned to look at me I added "He's not here."

She shook her head slowly sideways as though she was denying what I had just said. Then the confusion left her face and finally I was seeing the sister who had been taking care of me for years now, since we had found ourselves alone and on the road long before the infection swept over the country. There was determination on her face now.

"You're right. Okay. They left. On foot but by now I'm sure they have a vehicle of some sort. So where would they go to?"

"Back to that Ghostbusters guy's place, right?" I contributed.

"Right." Instead of charging off immediately again Krista took stock of what we had and my stomach began to settle back down. She was thinking again, the thinking and planning that had kept us fed and housed and safe for so long.

"Okay, we need gas. We need ammunition. We need food and we need sleep."

"Then we'll find them?" I knew her thoughts were of Columbus and that was fine but I missed Tallahassee a lot. Not any kind of romantic way... YUCK!... but we had become friends and I knew he would look after me... us... both of us I mean. Like an older brother sort of or even a...

I shied away from finishing that thought. Some wounds run too deep.

"And then we'll find them," she said firmly. And now everything was going to be okay. Krista said so. We'll find them.

(Columbus)

I nearly got Tallahassee killed today. We were browsing a car dealer's lot and I wasn't paying attention. Again. So when the remaining sales staff poured out of the sales manager's office, where I doubt they had been holding a pep talk, I was staring out the showroom window. I mean at least I could have been looking under the hood of the Escalade Tallahassee had found or something. Oh who am I kidding? I don't know the first thing about cars other than the gas goes in one place and the key in another.

So I'm thinking about dark-hair being brushed back over an ear and for once Tallahassee didn't have his game on. He was looking at the Caddy. I was supposed to be watching for zombies.

Fortunately one thing zombies are not is silent. I heard the first slobber and turned in time to let go with one barrel into the one leading the charge. I guess he was probably the sales leader for the previous month or something like that that meant he got first bite.

I should have double-tapped him but there wasn't time for that. I fired the other shell into the main group and watched the havoc the buckshot made as I dug out two more shells and broke the action open. This fortunately let Tallahassee drop down and the surge of bodies kind of went over him and he didn't get bitten.

Everyone has kept telling me and telling me that a double-barrel shotgun is not the ideal weapon to carry. I understand what they're saying but look at it from my point of view. I know just about as much about guns as I do about cars. This shotgun is simple, it's easy to clean and it never jams because the spit-fuck using it, i.e. me, does something stupid with it like inserting the magazine backwards.

By the time I reloaded and fired again Tallahassee had squirmed out of the pile and was methodically picking the zombies off, one bullet in the head to a customer. He never needed to double-tap. Well actually he did but I handled it for him.

He nodded to me and turned his attention back to the Caddy. He didn't need to say anything. I knew darn well I had fucked up and he knew I knew. So he didn't point it out to me and I didn't have to apologize. I just thrust Wichita out of my mind, at least for now and concentrated on doing what I was supposed to be doing.

Cleaning out the dealership meant once Tallahassee had the SUV running we were able to drive it over to the body shop and put an armored sweeper on the front like the one he had on the vehicle he had been driving when we first met. He felt much better with it on there; which meant I felt better two. And we even found stencils to allow him to paint a practically professional looking "3" on each door.

"Dale himself would be proud of that," he nodded approvingly.

We carefully fueled the vehicle and stocked it with everything else we had scrounged. Tallahassee had glance over at me rather casually , or at least trying to pretend to be casual, as we finished the loading so I played along, turning my head away and pretending rpt fascination with something or other in the back seat. As soon as he was sure I wasn't looking he slipped the Twinkie, still unopened, that Little Rock had tossed him, looked at it, sighed and put it into the glove compartment. Obviously I wasn't the only one missing someone though it was quite obvious that Tallahassee's feelings about Little Rock tended towards the paternal.

I wondered what the back story was behind Wichita and Little Rock and how they had ended up on the road together but also alone. Where were their parents? What had happened in their past that set them on the path they had been traveling when the world ended?

Tallahassee fired up the engine. I climbed on board and we were off. Since I no longer had any destination in mind at all it didn't matter to me that Tallahassee had decided we would head to Mexico in search of "Los Submerenos". One place was as good as another.

I guess I was never going to know the answers to those questions. I really would have liked to though.

(To be continued)


	5. Chapter 5

Working My Way Back to You, Chapter 5 by patricia51

(Wichita)

I was keeping myself busy. Not that there wasn't quite a lot to do. We had to resupply just about everything; food, water, ammo and gas while keeping an eye out for wandering zombies. There seemed to be fewer of them nowadays then there were a couple of months ago when the infection reached its peak. I wondered if they were dying off for lack of people to eat or if there was some other reason their numbers seemed to be shrinking.

Anyway that was just as well since until we lucked upon a suprising not looted Wal-Mart with an attached gas island. Apparently they had just stocked up for the fall hunting season as we were able to gather a lot of shells for both my shotgun and my sister's rifle. We also added a pistol that must have belonged to someone who wasn't as fast as we were since we found it in the middle of the floor still fully loaded. And the sporting goods section had boxes of nine millimeter ammo for it as well.

Having ammo again was good, I was getting tired of having to run over any zombies we encountered and you can't do that very well in the aisles of a store. It can be done however, although it does tend to bend up the fenders a lot. So we loaded up and then drove back out, stopping near the grocery section to stock up on food and water. We took out the rmaining zombies, at longer range now and then drove back out the front doors. Well, why not? Someone else had done that already. I wondered if it could be...

I shook my head. Could I have that much luck? Did I deserve that much luck? I had spent a rather sleepless night thinking. Although I'm not given much to self-examination at the best of times I had no choice but to examine my feelings and actions. I knew why I had bolted from Columbus and I knew what I would tell him when next I saw him. I refused to listen to the little voice that whispered in my left ear "You'll never see him again" or the other one that whispered in my right ear "Even if you do he'll never forgive you". I reminded myself that my right ear was the one he had brushed my hair over. That let me cling to hope.

(Little Rock)

I sure felt a lot better as we pulled away from what was left of that Wal-Mart. We were all stocked up and Krista was acting a whole lot more like her old self. What a relief. I didn't like the thought of having to take care of her. I WOULD of course if I needed to but she's been the only adult in our lives until lately so I was happy she was back to take care of me.

"Where to next?" I asked.

"Bill Murray's place maybe?"

"Do you think they would have gone back there?" i didn't say anything but I was glad to know that we were still going to try to find Tallahassee. And Columbus too of course.

"I don't know," she admitted, "But I really can't think of any other place to start looking. Can you?"

"Nope." And off we went.

(Columbus)

I was keeping a sharp lookout, I really was. We had to pick our way through more abandoned, wrecked and burned cars, trucks and busses than I had ever seen. Everyone in LA must have tried to get out of town at the same time. More than once we found masses that we just couldn't get through and had to take another route. Sometimes we crossed the median and drove in the other lanes, sometimes we drove down the median and sometimes we had to flat turn around and try another way. Tallahassee was NOT enjoying himself. We didn't even see any zombies, which was fine with me, but he tended to brood about Buck when he didn't have them around to take out his anger on.

We were turning off of yet another overpass when I thought I heard a distant horn honking. I looked around but we had already started down the ramp and my field of vision was curtailed. I listened intently but didn't hear anything. I chalked it up to my overactive imagination. Besides, very shortly I had a lot more on my mind than phantom car horns.

(Wichita)

"There they are! There they ARE!" My sister screamed right into my ear and I nearly crashed because her arm shot across right in front of my eyes. But who cared? I didn't crash. I just slammed on brakes and let my line of sight follow her finger.

Yes it WAS a Escalade and black and that was Tallahassee's favorite vehicle but there were other people on the road every now and then so how could she be sure? Then I saw the number three painted on the driver's door and I slammed my hand repeatedly on the car horn until the other vehicle passed out of sight.

"We lost them," I moaned.

"No, I've got a bead on where they just turned on to the interstate. Thanks goodness we saw them."

Thank goodness indeed. I twisted the wheel and headed in the direction she was pointing. And if my sister thought I drove like a wild woman the other night, well, she hadn't seen anything yet. All she could do after the first minute was hang on while I cut across highways and interchanges and bounced off a car or three. Well, hang on and shout things like "That highway off to the left" and "Would you slow DOWN?".

As it turned out we made a wrong move somewhere because when we reached the edge of the correct ramp we weren't at the beginning of it. We really weren't even at the end where it merged on to the interstate. We were in fact up on a hillside looking nearly straight down. But that was good because as we jumped out of the car we hadn't been seen when the shots were fired. That made us stop and peek over the edge at what was going on. And what was going on I didn't like one bit. So what was I going to do about it? Fortunately I had an idea. I scampered back to the rear of the SUV and dug frantically for a few things I thoght I'd never need again but just couldn't make myself get rid of.

(To be continued)


	6. Chapter 6

Working My Way Back to You, Chapter 6 by patricia51

(Tallahassee)

Not that I'm ever going to admit it but this is mostly my fault. The situation Columbus and I are in right now that is. I had backtracked too many times trying to get going south and I was tired of it. I could HEAR the Twinkies down in Mexico calling me, and it was nearly noisy enough to drown out the other voices reminding me that we had unfinished business here in LA.

I could claim that I was spending too much time looking over at Columbus. I was worried about him. I knew he was putting up a brave front about not caring but that little spit-fuck wasn't fooling me. He and I actually had something in common, besides being alive that is. We both tended to give ourselves completely when we let someone get close. That's why I first went with the place names rather than real ones. I've learned my lesson. You don't get close.

Yea, I'm lying like a rug. I have got close. To all three of them. It hurt when the girls took off or at least Wichita did and Little Rock didn't have a choice in the matter from what I saw. The funny thing is that I kind of understand why Wichita acted like she did. Doesn't mean I agree with her though. The time to be peeling out of the parking lot is BEFORE going to first base with Columbus, not after. Because to that little spit-fuck that was a declaration of love. And the second funny thing, come to think of it, is that it might just be that for her as well.

Okay so this was where my mind was instead of paying attention to the road. Yes, I could see that the line of vehicles was narrowing down and I was hoping the road wouldn't be blocked ahead because I'd have to back up for a good long time before we could turn around. So naturally when we rounded a sharp curve I wasn't surprised at all to see the road was indeed blocked. But what should have set off immediate alarm bells was the way it was blocked. Instead of stalled vehicles nose to tail there was an old bus sideways across the road. Even as I slammed on the brakes I realized it didn't get there by accident. I shifted into reverse but it was too late.

(Little Rock)

I've been scared a lot, especially over the last couple of months. But now I was REALLY scared. Looking down I could see Tallahassee and Columbus and the trap they had been caught in. Their vehicle was pinned front and rear between two lines of rusted cars and the half dozen guys surrounding them had guns. A lot of guns and they were pulling our guys from the SUV. I aimed down at them but they were too close together. And if I couldn't use my rifle than I knew Krista's shotgun would be even worse. What were we going to do? And what was she doing rummaging in the back of our vehicle?

Then she was back beside me and my mouth must have dropped open because she grinned at me. A tight grin filled with worry but a grin never-the-less. She handed me her shotgun and pointed.

"I'm going down that little walkway right there. Be ready. You'll know when the time is right to either toss me my shotgun or start shooting yourself. Don't worry little sister; I've got faith in you."

Before I could protest she was gone, bending as low as she could in that outfit and slipping down the path that took her just to the other side of the rusting bus that was parked sideways across the road. She paused for a second; slipping on the shoes she had carried rather than worn as she descended. She adjusted her clothing, took a deep breath and walked around the bus.

(Columbus)

I can't fault Tallahassee. Or even me this time. I mean, who would have thought it?

There are grocery stores all over, packed with food that will be good yet for a long time. There are other stores, most of them slightly looted of course but still filled with all the gadgets and gizmos and stuff you could want. True, you have to handle the zombies but that's not an insurmountable problem, you just have to be careful and with a group of armed survivors (and there probably aren't any survivors that aren't armed come to think of it) there's even less risk.

So who is crazy enough to lurk out on a pretty much abandoned forever highway in the hopes of conducting a holdup? And, fuck me, who are crazy enough to jump out and yell "Give us all your money!"? Where the hell do they think they're going to spend it?

Of course these guys probably ARE crazy. They're wild-eyed, dirty and the expressions in their eyes pretty much match those of the average zombie. So with three guns pointed at each of us after they fired several shots in the air to get our attention, Tallahassee and I looked at each other, shrugged and got out of the vehicle. The only problem I see is that we don't HAVE any money. I don't even have a wallet.

When they find that out things go from extremely bad to genuine shit-storm. Two of them are slobbering now and "Kill 'em" seems to be the predominate sound they're grunting. I can see Tallahassee's arm tensing and I know he's about to make a try for his cut-down rifle when a strange clicking sound draws everyone's attention and what we see makes everyone's jaw drop and eyes bug out.

All I can say is that no wonder Wichita had her marks brain dead by the time Little Rock finished the con. Because the woman walking towards us would make any vaguely heterosexual guy swallow his common sense. And any other sense he had.

Long slender sexy legs peeking out from under the shortest, tightest black skirt I have ever seen and those legs made even more remarkable by the black high heels that are the source of the clicking sound. Hips swaying enticing back and forth. A low cut blouse showing that the wearer seems to have forgotten to wear a bra. And topping it all, black hair cascading around a beautiful face centered on two dark expressive eyes and a pair of lips that fairly shout "Kiss me. Kiss me NOW!

"Hi fellas," the gorgeous apparition speaks with a million watt smile that freezes us all, except for a certain part on each guy that is responding as fast as it can to the vision before us. "I was hoping you could... oh damn." Something rang on the concrete and she turned sideways and bent over to pick whatever it was up.

"God," was the murmur all around us as that already tight skirt pulled even closer to Wichita's butt as well as rode up almost to that butt even as her leg muscles flexed. I was pretty sure I heard drooling around me. Then Tallahassee's hand was blurring towards his holster; a rifle opened up from above us and I dove back into the front seat, grabbing my shotgun and rolling on my back to point it at the guys on my side.

(To be continued)


	7. Chapter 7

Working My Way Back to You, Chapter 7 by patricia51

(Little Rock)

There was one long frozen moment and then it seemed like the whole world exploded. I took a shot at the guy nearest to Tallahassee. That guy seemed to be the one person that wasn't ogling my sister and still had his gun covering his target. I staggered him enough for Tallahassee to draw and then everything happened at once.

Columbus dove back into the passenger's seat and then two of the guys on his side were falling. I guess catching a load of 12 gauge buckshot at close range does that. Tallahassee, as I expected, cleaned out his side in the blink of an eye. As I hefted Krista's shotgun to toss to her I saw it.

There was one guy still on his feet. He had, along with the others, been staring at Krista. Staring? His eyes had been popping out. But even his excuse for a brain figured out something was going on and that she was part of it. All he had to do was lift the gun that was in his hands. I had her shotgun in one hand and my rifle in the other, Tallahassee was on the other side of the vehicle and Columbus was out of ammo and fumbling to reload. I swear I even saw the guy's finger tightening on the trigger.

Then that gun was firing harmlessly into the air as one hundred pounds or so of skinny but enraged Texas college student knocked it and the guy holding it to the ground where Columbus proceeded to beat the guy unconscious with the butt of his shotgun. He was breathing heavily when he got up and spun around to check on Krista.

The two of them just looked at each other. My attention was drawn away from that scene when what Tallahassee was yelling finally penetrated my mind.

"Little Rock? Little Rock! LITTLE ROCK are you alright?" He must have been yelling for a bit because he suddenly loomed up in my line of sight, having apparently levitated up the forty foot bluff because I don't see how he could have climbed it that fast. But he was there and the look of relief in his eyes that I was okay made me feel very good. It WAS just like having a big brother who was worried about me.

There was a LOT of awkward silence down on the road below us. Finally we yelled a few words to each other and decided to go back to Bill Murray's place after all. Columbus and Krista got in the car down there and Tallahassee and I took this one. We got out of there before all the noise drew any zombies.

(Wichita)

It was a long ride back to Bill's place, made even longer because neither Columbus nor I could seem to think of a single word to say to each other. Word? We could barely look at each other. One of us would sneak a peek and then the other would see and the first one would look back ahead again. That went on the whole way. If it hadn't been so serious it would have been funny. From his actions I knew that Columbus still cared for me and I hoped he realized I felt the same way about him too.

Because of the criss-crossing and back-tracking we had all been doing it only took us a couple of hours to get to our destination. It didn't seem any longer then a week or so to me. When we finally got there we checked the mansion carefully, hid the vehicles in the garage and settled down. Tallahassee and my sister disappeared, leaving me with Columbus in the same room he and I had danced together in just a couple of nights before.

(Columbus)

I desperately wanted to hear what she had to say but the drive back to the mansion wasn't the place for it. So we settled in what I actually thought of as "our" room and I waited. She started to pace but brought up short with a wince.

"What's wrong?"

She sat down in a chair, pulling off one heel and then trying, and failing, to get the other one off. I went to her and repeated my question.

"It's nothing; I cut my foot coming down the hillside. I think the shoe is glued to my foot," she said lightly, as though trying to make it a joke.

"We need to do something about it."

"Not yet. Not now. Damn, I wish I hadn't given this away," she looked like she was about to burst into tears. "I didn't want you to feel sorry for me during this conversation. I wanted you to hopefully listen to what I have to say; my excuses and apologies and my promise to never act like that again with a clear and open mind. And if you can't forgive me, well, I trust you to tell me that too and I'll have to live with that."

I nodded and listened. I had already figured out that something really bad had happened in the lives of the two of them to make them both this cynical so young. And as for trust issues, well, I had commented on that more than once. If Krista and I were to get to a place that I was beginning to think that we both wanted to get to I needed to know what had happened to make Krista and Little Rock who they are.

It really was a simple tale. I had always thought my parents were anything but mainstream, being paranoid loners like me (I often wondered how they had managed to get together close enough and long enough to have me) but they had nothing on Krista and Little Rock's folks. A mother that gave up, wandered off into her own world and died early was matched with a father that simply disappeared on them without a word, sign or note.

The Family Services people tried to help but had to split up the siblings. They were bounced from home to home to rapid succession and at least once during that time there was an attempt to molest Krista. Finally she had found her sister and the two of them had escaped together and hit the road, coming up with their "lost engagement ring" idea and funding its start-up by "liberating" their car and some money from a crooked used car dealer who fell for Krista and involved her in one of his schemes.

I was glad to learn all this. Not because I enjoyed the idea of all that had happened to her and her sister but because it let me understand her so much better. I waited as patiently as I could to find out what this had to do with why she had taken off the other night. Then she explained it. Little Rock had been the one that had put it into words for her; that I was the guy who wouldn't try to cheat her, the one she actually could trust. And for one moment she just couldn t figure out how to accept that. So she had run until she came to her senses.

"There's nothing more that I can say except I'm sorry and that I'll never leave you again. If you still want me."

The thing was that there did seem to be something more she wanted to say. When I asked her about it she shook her head.

"I do want to say something more but I won't. I mean it but you might think of it as another con."

I was pretty sure I knew what she was thinking. I hoped so.

(Wichita)

Columbus nodded with a look in his eyes I couldn't be sure of but gave me hope. He didn't say anything. Instead, he told me he'd be right back. He was, with a bowl of hot water, bandages and other stuff he had raided from the master bathroom. He carefully pried my other heel off, washed the cuts, applied antiseptic to them and then bandages. Once he was satisfied he took my hand and led me in a search for Tallahassee and Little Rock, walking slowly and supporting my arm to take the weight off my foot.

We found them in another room. My sister was curled up asleep on a bed, covered in a blanket that Tallahassee was tucking in around her. Without noticing us he walked over to a chair near the bed and sat down where he could keep an eye on her. He folded his arms across his chest and closed his eyes.

We went back to our room. Columbus looked at me with a faraway look in his eyes.

"The first time I ever let a woman into my life she tried to eat me. The second time," and here he looked directly at me and the faraway look was gone," well, I wish she would have tried to eat me because it would have hurt less."

I winced.

"But you came back. And I believe you when you say you'll stay. And I believe what you won't say but I know anyway."

He was right in front of me now and how could I ever have though he was a guppy? He brushed the hair from my ear and whispered a first name. With that I knew he forgave me and loved me too. Now that he knew I really meant it I told him I did and with my sister and our adopted big brother in the other room safe and happy too we were a family.

(The End)


End file.
